Research Engineer – Fundamental AI Research – 72789 / 72790

Research Engineer – Fundamental AI Research
Two contract opportunities
Location: London – hybrid, three days per week onsite
Contract: 12 months
Hours: 40 hours per week
Start date: ASAP

Rates:

• Research Engineer II: £38 per hour PAYE – approximately 2–4 years’ relevant experience
• Research Engineer III: £45 per hour PAYE – approximately 5–7 years’ relevant experience

We are recruiting two Research Engineers at different experience levels to join the Fundamental AI Research team of a leading global technology company.

You will work as a fully embedded member of an advanced research team, combining hands-on machine-learning research with software and infrastructure engineering. The projects focus on recursive self-improvement: developing AI systems that can help build and improve other AI systems.

The work will involve large language models, reinforcement learning, synthetic data, multi-agent systems and the development of safe, effective environments for AI agents.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research across machine learning and large language model systems.
• Build reinforcement-learning environments and generate high-quality synthetic data.
• Research multi-agent systems in which multiple AI agents collaborate on complex projects.
• Develop robust sandboxes, pipelines and infrastructure for AI agents.
• Design tools and methods that advance the capabilities and performance of large language models.
• Write high-quality Python code and deliver solutions alongside researchers and engineers.
• Run complex experiments involving large AI models and datasets.
• Evaluate academic research and apply relevant findings to practical experiments.
• Analyse results with scientific rigour to understand why different approaches succeed or fail.
• Communicate research plans, progress and findings to technical and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Adapt effectively as research priorities evolve.

Essential experience

• Relevant experience in machine learning, artificial intelligence, recommendation systems, pattern recognition or a related field.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch or a comparable machine-learning framework.
• Experience developing, training or evaluating machine-learning models at scale.
• Experience programmatically querying large language models and/or supporting LLM post-training.
• Experience writing reliable software and running complex experiments using large models and datasets.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate research findings into practical recommendations.
• Comfortable working within a fast-moving research environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering or another relevant technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Desirable experience

• Direct experience in generative AI or large language model research.
• Experience with reinforcement learning, synthetic-data generation, agentic AI or multi-agent systems.
• Experience building infrastructure, evaluation frameworks or sandbox environments for AI agents.
• Previous experience within a major technology company or established AI research laboratory.
• A research-focused Master’s degree or PhD in machine learning, artificial intelligence or a related field.
• Research publications or contributions to academic or applied research.

Candidates currently completing a PhD may also be considered, provided they can commit to the required working hours and hybrid arrangement.

The appropriate vacancy and rate will be determined by the depth and length of your relevant experience.